MSX
MSX is IMMC's oldest and most popuular brand, dating back to 1949, making it over 40 years older than IMMC itself, which was formed out of MSX Automotive International. MSX are known for building two distict type of car: performance cars and off road 4X4s, and have been building both since the comany's beginning. MSX currently operates In 1949 MSX lauched in Australia with two models, the Type 1 roadster, and the Type A 153/6 four wheel drive, both powered by a 2.5 litre inline 6 which has evolved heavily over time and is still used today. Both cars were well recieved, and sold well enough to the company to continue. although the Type A 153/6 was considered too small for anything more than farm use and was later replaced by larger models. The Type 1 was regarded as being tougher and more reliable but heavier than the British sports cars of the time and enjoyed some success as a rally car. It made way for the ightened Type II in 1953, itself superseeded by the Type IV in 1957, which remained on sale until 1962. The 1953-62 Type 3 was MSX's first 4 seater car, and paved the way for the 1957 R70 sedan, the grandfather of the modern ST7. Types V-VIII (all mid engined V8s) have been released as 25th, 40th, 50th and 60th anneversary models respectively 1966 saw their first factories outside Australia, in Detroit and Hamilton, New Zealand, the New Zealand factory would produce R95s and later Taipans, while in Detroit, MSX had dveloped the full sized Zenith luxury sedan. It had a 4.1L I6 or 6.0L V12 engine, with a 3 speed auto, MSX's first auto and first V12, essentially two of their big block AP6 I6s sharing a crankshaft. The Zenith's engines were very smooth and quiet, but the car wasn't soft enough for American tastes, something that was soon rectified. In 1967 the S1 Taipan was released, replacing the R95, bringing a V8 engine and US exports from Australia commenced. The LWB Barrossa luxury sedan and it's US built Zenith Compact counterpart was inroduced, the S1 is best known for the GT6, it had a 4.1L inline 6 with double Weber carburettors and a 6 speed manual. It set a new standard for 6 cylinder sprorts sedans and won the Sketchy World Touring Car Championship. The first generation Taipan also produced the S2 and S3 GTXR models, regarded as two of the greatest touring car homolagtion specials 1978 gave us the X800 series XC8 pickup, a car that remains in production today as the X819 XC8 Classic. Initially produced n Adelaide, Detroit and Derbyshire, it's now produced in Coventry as a dual cab and LWB chassis, after other variants, including the XT8 wagon were replaced by all new X820 series. By the early 1990s, MSX had lost it's way and sales slumped. Many people blamed their American division's focus on the bottom line and the resulting cars, and a failure to globalise successfully. Despite attempts to stop them from head office in Australia, the Americans had filled their line up with economy focused FWD cars and ageing large sedans, even the 1991 GT5 (MSX's Mustang rival) was FWD, based on a stretched ST3 with engines no bigger than a 2.7L I6. In Europe and Australia, engineers persisted with RWD even in the compact ST2, only the ST1 was FWD, and as a result it was more expensive than it should have been. A completely unrelated RWD GT5 was produced in Australia. In the 1993 SWTCC, MSX/R fielded a pair of Australian GT5s, while the North American MSX Dealer Team ran American GT5s with the same two litre six, MSX/R won the championship and almost half the races, while the Americans performed rather embarrasingly. In 94, with coupes banned from competing, MSX/R missed out on the drivers and teams championships in their Euro-Australian ST6, but still humiliated the Americans in their own nose heavy FWD ST6. In 1996, MSX's Australian bosses announced they would put an end to this costly division, and cancelled the American 1997 ST6 and GT5, forcing them to either take the new RWD ST6 in '99, or leave the ST7 as it's default mid sized offering. MSX NA did the latter, and introduced a new four cylinder variant. In the late 90s, MSX started working on their first crossvers in response to a decline in traditional large sedan sales. Four models were planned, the sub compact XT1, the compact XT3 and XT5 and the mid sized XT7. The XT1 and XT3 were standalone models launched in 20047 and 2003 respectively and are both still in production in their first generation model. The XT5 is a high riding AWD ST2 wagon in it's second generation. The first generation, code named CX30 was relesed in 2003, and the third generation CX50 is due in 2014. The XT7 was released in 2004 as a high riding AWD ST7 wagon, which unlike most other ST7 derivatives at the time was only produced in Melbourne, Australia and exported to New Zealand and North America. The SX50 as it was known was sold untill 2007, when it was replaced by the current US built SX60 with unique bodywork. In 2014, the SX70 will be released, and may return to Australian production of a wagon based crossover to make room for an ISO dedicated SUV. Present and Future MSX is currently the largest brand within the greater IMMC-ICCM group, and a very popular brand among consumers. They have a broad model range, although they lack a compact SUV, a B segment or smaller car, and a genuine contender in the North American mid size segment. The newly released D50 series ST3 has uickly become the most popular passenger car in the current range 2012 saw the release of the first all new X8 series, the first in the history of theSUV and 4WD commecial vehicles's 35 year history. MSX hopes to coninue to renew it's 4WD ineup by developing a smaller ladder frame chassis for the next generation XT6/XC7, which will share front sheetmetal. The future of the compact XT3 remains unclear. MSX's current lineup consists of: Sedans, wagons and hatchbacks: *ST2 - compact hatch (C50: 2014-19) *ST3 - compact sedan (D50: 2013-18) *ST6 - compact exectutive (M50: 2012-17) *ST7 - large (S70: 2011-16) *ST8 - large executive (L70: 2011-16) Sports cars *ST2 Stelvio - (C50: 2012-17) *GT1 - (GB20: 2008-15) *GT5 - (GS71: 2012-17) *ST7 Fastback/Taipan - (S71: 2011-16) *GT8 - (2008-15) SUVs and 4WDs *XT1 - (BX10: 2004-14) *XT3 - (XC30: 2003-unconfirmed) *XT5 - (CX40: 2008-13) *XT6 - (XG35:2005-2014) *XT6 Atacama - (XG40:2011-unconfirmed) *Venture (LX70: 2013-18) *XT7 - (SX60:2007-13) *XT8 - (X820: 2012-indefinite), right Light Commercials *XC5 - (2010-unconfirmed) *ST7 ute - (S73: 2011-18) *XC7 - (2004-2014) *XC8 - (X820: 2012-indefinite) *XC8 Classic (X800-819: 1978-2016) New models expected in 2013-14 *ST2 C51 *XT7 SX70 *XT1 BX20 *Venture LX70 (S. America only) By 2016, MSX plans on once agian having a complete lineup of passenger cars, with a new B segment ST1 codeveloped with Omega, ISO and Vertice, a downsized ST7, losing it's retro muscle car styling and moving from a full size/E segment car to a miid size/large family car. In turn, the ST8 will fill the current ST7's void and the ST6 will become slightly smaller to better resemble a compact executive car in size, priced between the ST7 and ST3. The sub compact XT1 and mid sized XT7 crossover SUVs will be joined by a compact XT4, and the ST2 wagon based XT5 will be renewed in 2013-14. Factories Current *Cologne, GER *Georgetown, KY, USA *Melbourne, VIC, AUS *Ontario, CAN *Rayong, TH *Sao Paulo, BR *Smyrna, TN, USA *Warsaw, PL Past *Adelaide, SA, AUS *Saginaw, MI, USA *Hamilton, NZ